A third of national marketers say 40% or more of their company’s revenue comes from local business partners. Yet two-thirds of national marketers have only a moderate understanding or worse about their local partners’ business and marketing challenges and how to kickstart local demand, according to a new report by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and BrandMuscle.

This new research examines the opportunity and challenges national marketers face when improving and promoting their local partner channel marketing programs.

Key findings:

• 95% of national marketing leaders say it’s important (41%), very important (29%), even critically important (25%), to increase revenue through their local partner channel.
• 75% have only a moderate understanding (40%), limited understanding (29%) or no understanding (6%) of local partners, their challenges and how to optimize their performance.
• 55% say the overall effectiveness of their local partner channel marketing program is only moderately effective or worse.
• 43% say it’s very important, even critical, to improve digital marketing among local partners, yet 48% don’t even offer fund reimbursement for digital marketing tactics.

“Local partners are the last mile to purchase and have the most interaction with customers,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. “If national marketers really want to know their customers, they need to work closely with local partners, collaborate on marketing projects, share data, etc. Shoring up your local partner channel marketing program is a great place to start.”

There is a significant opportunity for national marketers to improve their local partner channel marketing programs, such as making services more easily accessible, getting more creative with funding, and providing marketing training, content and digital marketing tactics that are meaningful at the local level, states a release.

More here.